In the United States each year, thousands of children are abducted or lost at public venues. The safety and welfare of children takes the utmost priority in the lives of most people. The public have been turning to technology more and more to protect children and to prevent their abduction, injury and harm. Such technological means have included both audio and video monitors, alarm systems and the like.
The risk of abduction is one of the greatest risks to parents and/or child care providers. While technology exists for protection of automobiles against similar threats such as car jacking and theft, this technology has not been used to protect children against similar threats. Many children become lost and/or abducted while returning from school, playing at a friend's house, while engaged in extended outdoor activities such as hiking or camping or while at malls and the like.
The prior art includes security devices in which a lost or abducted child can be located by using a radio receiver that monitors the signal transmitted by a matching transmitter in possession of the lost or abducted child. U.S. Pat. No. 6,593,851 discloses a two-way, parent-child communication system includes a parent unit and at least one child unit. The parent and child units are capable of both sending and receiving signals to and from the corresponding unit to cause any number of alerts or messages to be communicated to the parent, child and/or guardian. Each unit may include a number of different alert mechanisms, including an audible alert, a visual alert, a vibratory alert or voice messages.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,243,039 discloses a system that tracks the current and historical locations of a GPS locator device carried by a person provides widely available access to data referencing these locations, so that a parent can easily and frequently monitor the location of a child. Monitoring of a child's location may be conducted via a Web site, which provides graphical maps of location data, or via calling into a call center. The present invention also provides a means for a parent to trigger the automatic transmission of the device's location, via a Web site or call placed to a call center agent or a VRU. The present invention also provides a process of auto-notification of a device's movement that exceeds a pre-specified threshold. The present invention also includes a capability to function as a proximity alert device.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,127,931 discloses a device for monitoring the movement of a person including a homing unit and a base unit. The homing unit includes a device for generating a homing signal and a transmitter for transmitting the homing signal at predetermined intervals. The base unit includes a receiver for receiving the homing signal, a processor for processing the homing signal to determine whether the homing unit is within a predetermined distance from the base unit and generating an alarm signal upon determining the homing unit is at a distance from the base unit greater than the predetermined distance. An alarm is provided on the base unit for alerting a user that the homing unit has moved a distance greater than the predetermined distance from the base unit upon receipt of the alarm signal from the processor. The alarm is at least one of an audible alarm, a visible alarm and a vibratory alarm. At least one of the base unit and homing unit includes a device for adjusting the predetermined distance. The processor determines a time between receipt of sequentially transmitted homing signals to determine the distance between the base unit and homing unit. The base unit further includes a display for displaying the distance between the base unit and homing unit and a direction to the homing unit from the base unit.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,278,370 discloses a child locating and tracking apparatus which provides for the location of a child that is lost, abducted or in general danger to be quickly located is disclosed. The apparatus uses a small transmitter that is always carried by the child and as such, is always present when danger arises. The transmitter is easily disguised and hidden in the child's clothing or personal adornments such as shoes, coats, watches, earrings, bracelets, rings and the like. The apparatus uses a system of world wide receivers such as those provided by local cellular telephone towers or by low earth orbiting satellites used for low power communication. When a child is lost or in danger, the child simply activates the transmitter which sends a signal to a central reporting station or stations where trained personnel will contact the respective parents and/or care givers to determine if the child could possibly be in danger. If an affirmative decision is reached, the monitoring station personnel will then assist the local law enforcement officials in the respective area anywhere in the world where the alarm was received in locating the child and removing the child from harm's path.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,689,240 shows a system that transmits and receives signals comprising a master unit and a remote unit, wherein a separation distance between the master unit and remote unit is continuously monitored and an alarm is activated on the master unit when no signal is received from the remote unit for at least a time longer than a preset interval. If the separation distance between the master and remote unit is exceeded for a time longer than a preset time interval, the remote unit activates an alarm attached to the remote unit. The master unit may also be used to activate manually the remote unit's alarm. A pin or key arrangement is provided that ensures that the remote unit is not deactivated without interfacing with the master unit.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,486,777 to Clark has an issue date of Nov. 26, 2002. This invention is directed to an apparatus and method for an operator to monitor the whereabouts of a subject, the apparatus comprising a portable remote unit connected to the subject, the remote unit including a remote unit power supply, a radio transmitter for sending a substantially constant remote unit radio signal, a radio receiver for receiving a base unit radio signal, a remote unit alarm, and a dye pack for releasing dye substantially responsive to submersion of the remote unit in water. The apparatus also includes a base unit in radio communication with the remote unit for enabling the operator to monitor the whereabouts of the remote unit, the base unit including a base unit power supply, a radio transmitter for sending the base unit radio signal, a radio receiver for receiving the substantially continuous remote unit radio signal, a distance estimator for substantially estimating the distance between the base unit and the remote unit, a base unit alarm responsive to the remote unit radio signal so that the base unit alarm is activated when the remote unit radio signal is altered, and a direction finding function for generally finding the direction from which the remote unit signal originates, relative to remote unit radio signal strength.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,078,260 discloses a system for monitoring the proximity and location of a child by a parent includes two transceiver units which communicate wirelessly. The child unit will transmit a signal to the parent unit so that the parent unit can determined the proximity of the child unit and its direction. A safe zone may be set by controls on the parent unit. When the child unit moves beyond the safe zone, the parent unit will generate an alert.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,326,891 shows compact warning device for preventing child from being lost comprises a high frequency distance-adjustable host transceiver and a plurality of slave transceivers wherein the high frequency host transceiver is carried by the parents and a high frequency slave transceiver is secured on a child, and the host and the slave transceivers can proceed bidirectional page or response with its counterpart. When one of the slave transceivers departs from the host transceiver beyond a preset security range, both the host and the slave transceiver will alarm to warn the child and the parents in order to prevent the child from being lost. Moreover, as this invention is capable of adjusting security range in multiple stages, it can fit various circumstantial conditions.
While the prior art discloses a number of systems directed to monitoring small children and the like, it is an object of the present invention to provide a system whereby a lost child or pet can be rapidly located by means of an electronic transmitter and receiver.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a system whereby a transmitter can create an audible sound for the location of a lost child.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a signal which can be heard by individuals proximate to the child.
It is a factor object of the invention to provide a device having a proximity sansor.
These and other objects of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description and claims which follow.